Planck 2018 Memorial Scientific Symposium

Europe/Budapest
Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Széchenyi Square 9, Budapest, Hungary
Sándor Varró (Wigner Research Centre), Peter Hartmann (MTA Wigner FK)
Description

The “Planck 2018 Memorial Scientific Symposium” is organized on the occasion of Max Planck’s 160th birthday and of the 100th anniversary of his receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics. The elementary quantum of action h discovered by Planck in the year 1900 plays a fundamental role not only in physics (from microphysics to cosmological physics), but in other natural sciences (like chemistry or biology) and modern technologies (like microelectronics), as well as in our everyday life. Max Planck was elected to a honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and this is an other reason for why the Joint Committee of the History of Science and Technology celebrates the Great Master on this outstanding occasion.

At this two-days memorial scientific symposium there will be 45 minutes plenary talks on each day. Besides emphasizing historical aspects and the broad spectrum of Max Planck’s contribution to physics, the alltogether eleven talks to be delivered by leading experts, are also ment to reflect the present challenges for human knowledge concerning the scientific description of nature.

Registration
Planck 2018 registration form
Participants
  • Wednesday 10 October
    • 09:00 09:15
      Opening 15m
      Speaker: Prof. Jenő Sólyom (MTA Wigner FK)
    • 09:15 10:00
      Max Planck, Kiel and recent progress in the dynamics of correlated quantum many-body systems. 45m
      Speaker: Prof. Michael Bonitz (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel)
    • 10:00 10:45
      Black-hole horizon thermodynamics and Planck scale. 45m
      Speaker: Tamas Biro (No institute)
    • 10:45 11:15
      Coffee Break 30m
    • 11:15 12:00
      Planck Mission: a cornerstone of modern cosmology. 45m
      Speaker: Prof. István Csabai (Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem • Természettudományi Kar • Fizikai Intézet)
    • 12:00 13:30
      Lunch Break 1h 30m
    • 13:30 14:15
      The symplectic camel property and quantum mechanics: old and new results. 45m

      The variability of physical "constants" is a possibility that cannot be out-ruled and which is an active area of research in cosmology and astrophysics. In fact, since Dirac in his "Large Numbers Hypothesis" suggested that some constants of Nature could vary in space and time, the topic has fascinated not only physicists but also philosophers of Science and has motivated numerous theoretical and experimental researches. In this talk, we focus on some consequences of possible changes in Planck's constant. In particular, the purity of a quantum state is extremely sensitive to such changes, and quantum states can evolve into classical states, and vice versa. We also shortly discuss entanglement from this perspective. A complete classification of such transitions is however not possible for the moment being because of yet unsolved mathematical difficulties related to the study of positivity properties of trace class operators. Reference: M. de Gosson, Phys. Lett. A 381 (2017).

      Speaker: Prof. Maurice de Gosson (University of Vienna)
    • 14:15 15:00
      The Kolmogorovian censorship hypothesis. 45m
      Speaker: Prof. László E. Szabó (Department of Logic, Institute of Philosophy, Eötvös University)
    • 15:00 15:30
      Coffee Break 30m
    • 15:30 16:15
      A conservative revolutionary – Max Planck's worldview in physics. 45m
      Speaker: Prof. Péter Szegedi (Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, Tudománytörténet és Tudományfilozófia Tanszék)
  • Thursday 11 October
    • 09:00 09:45
      Atom-photon molecules. 45m
      Speaker: Peter Domokos (No institute)
    • 09:45 10:30
      Quantum field theory towards the Planck scale. 45m
      Speaker: Prof. Antal Jakovác (Department of Theoretical Physics Institute of Physics, Technical University of Budapest)
    • 10:30 11:00
      Coffee Break 30m
    • 11:00 11:45
      Relativistic thermodynamics and relativistic temperature. 45m
      Speaker: Dr Péter Ván (MTA Wigner FK )
    • 11:45 13:30
      Lunch Break 1h 45m
    • 13:30 14:15
      Molecular mechanisms and global effects of photosynthesis, and new vistas in the ultrafast reactions. 45m
      Speaker: Dr Győző Garab (Institute of Plant Biology, Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences)
    • 14:15 15:00
      Black-body radiation and the forgotten heritage of Max Planck. 45m
      Speaker: Prof. Sándor Varró (MTA Wigner FK)